A wide variety of mating electrical connectors employ pairs of interengaging terminals for interconnecting a plurality of circuits or wires through the mated connectors. The pairs of terminals may be pin and socket terminals which often are called male and female terminals, respectively.
The terminals are mounted in a plurality of terminal-receiving passageways or cavities in a dielectric housing of the electrical connector. The terminals generally are elongated and are inserted into the cavity along the longitudinal axes of the terminals. Some form of latch means normally are provided to hold the terminals in the cavities against withdrawal therefrom.
One of the ever-continuing problems with electrical connectors of the character described above is maintaining the terminals in proper positions within the connector housing. Instability of the terminals results in terminal movement within the housing, particularly transversely or angularly of their longitudinal axes. The transverse or angular movement of a terminal can cause terminal-to-terminal misalignment between mating connectors which could damage one or both of the mating terminals causing partial or even incomplete electrical connection. It readily can be understood that a pin or male terminal must be properly positioned, stabilized or centered in order to properly mate with a socket or female terminal, and this positioning or centering is critical with the increasing miniaturization of electrical connectors.
The present invention is directed to solving the above stability problems with terminals in electrical connectors by providing a simple but effective positioning means or system between the terminals and the connector housing.